2021 Melting Pot

In anticipation of being able to open our doors again, we are treating visitors to the gallery to two exhibitions in one, spread over two floors.  The top floor will play host to our current mixed Spring Exhibition ‘New Beginnings’ (which has only been shown online), whilst our new exhibition will be on the bottom floor.  ‘Melting Pot’ will launch online on Saturday 24th April, then doors will open from the Monday onwards.

‘Melting Pot’ does exactly what it says on the tin, featuring an eclectic mix of paintings, printmaking and photography, with a large selection of pottery too.  Besides this, there will also be some new mosaics and mirrors, alongside the vast collection of work already in the gallery.

New artists for ‘Melting Pot’ are aplenty, including Benedict Ramos, Clare Blois, Elisa M Lafuente & Siobhan O’Hehir.

Benedict Ramos is a fine art photographer, who specialises in still life. Ramos conveys a fascination and love of natural form and transformation through close and sustained observation. His work has an almost painterly quality, with his exquisite attention to colour and tone that has a feel of the Dutch and Spanish Old Masters.

Clare Blois is a Highlands based artist. Blois is primarily a landscape painter, and in the tradition of many Scottish artists she is inspired by the physical qualities of oil paint and the possibilities it provides in terms of colour, movement and texture.

Elisa M Lafuente’s (E M Lafuente) paintings merge the outside with what is felt inside, mixing external images with her feelings, dreams and memories. Her paintings are inspired by the landscapes of Northern England and Scotland, although the influence of her Mediterranean colours is still visible in her palette.

Borders based Siobhan O’Hehir is a semi abstract landscape painter, who takes her ideas both from her surrounding environment and further afield. Place, memory and the imagination are themes in her paintings.

Joining these new artists will be award winning children’s author and illustrator Catherine Rayner, with some of her limited edition silkscreen prints.  Clare Flinn will be delivering some new boat and harbour paintings, with a Kirkcudbright focus.  New charcoal drawings will be on display by Jonathan Stockley, alongside new mixed media photographic work by Robert Pereira Hind.  Local landsapes by Stewart Lammie will share the walls with new work by Dumfries based Tricia Barna.

Lovers of ceramics will be treated to six new collections for this exhibition.  New to the gallery, Ansastasia Hille will be giving us a small collection of her simple but striking pots and vessels. Also new, Edinburgh based Sarah Lawson creates gorgeous hand-built works, which we are looking forward to receiving.

After a brief introduction of some of her smaller works last December (which sold out), we are excited to welcome another collection of stoneware ceramic sculpture by Karen Lainson. We’re also really looking forward to a new collections of sculptural pieces by Helen Kemp, Pauline Montgomery & Shirley Vauvelle.

Alongside the pots, we have new mosaics by Morag Archer and Mirrors by Peter Machell.

The ‘Melting Pot’ online gallery will go live on Saturday 24th April from 11am.

Doors open from 10am on Monday 26th April.